Julia Gets Wise with Sylvia Earle
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What personal climate challenges does Julia Louis-Dreyfus share?
In the Wiser Than Me episode you're about to hear, I mention my house, a beautiful, perfect old Spanish revival home that was built in the 1920s where we raised our two boys and lived happily ever after for 31 years. A few weeks later, that very house and everything in it all burned down in the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. We lost everything, all of our family photos and treasures, every memento from my career. I mean, just everything. It's an unspeakable personal tragedy. But truthfully, in the end, we do count ourselves lucky. Our family is safe, thank God. We have a place to stay. We have some insurance. We have the resources to weather this storm, and God knows not everybody does have that.
This wildfire happened about two weeks before Inauguration Day. And since that day, it has been a metaphorical wildfire. We have been overwhelmed with a chaotic frontal attack on everything from science to the economy to immigrants to democracy itself. It is just completely nuts. It's so nuts that we're barely even talking about maybe the biggest danger lurking in the shadows. Actually, hardly the shadows. The climate disaster. It may feel existential right now, but, you know, truthfully, the climate crisis is not something that is on the way. It's actually something that is very much here right now. There's a metric that scientists use to determine the role of the climate emergency and fire risk.
This metric considered a set of factors like temperature, humidity, wind speed, and precipitation to estimate that the fire that burned down the Pacific Palisades and Altadena in Los Angeles was 35% more likely thanks to climate change. So, yeah, the climate crisis helped burn down my house, and I take that very personally. I know it's hard, of course, but now is not the moment to turn our attention away from championing the environment. Here's an example from right here in Santa Barbara, where I am right now.
What is the environmental threat from the Sable oil pipeline in Santa Barbara?
A decade ago, a decrepit pipeline in the Santa Barbara Channel exploded and spilled more than 400,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, closing fisheries, upending lives, killing sea life, and threatening a vital ocean ecosystem that is already under immense stress. It was one of the biggest oil spills in California history. And now an oil company called Sable is trying to restart this same corroded, failed pipeline without environmental review or public comment. Sable's project has been issued a cease and desist order by state government agencies, but shockingly, the company simply ignores that order and keeps working. But, but, citizens in Southern California know how important our coast is, and we're not going to let them get away with it, not without a genuine fight. It's very hard to keep all the battles we need to fight right now straight. Every institution we hold sacred, everything dear seems to be threatened. And just like you, I am so exhausted, oh my God, and I am sickened by the whole thing.
So I'm trying to pick my fights. I'm thinking globally, and I am acting locally, like battling this awful Sable oil pipeline plan. If you want, you can join me in that fight by donating at environmentaldefensecenter.org. There's a link in the show notes, and we'll also have it on the Wiser Than Me Instagram website. Or you can find a fight of your own right where you live. There are great, great rewards in fighting for something noble like the future of the planet, of a lake, of a river, a mountain, or the mighty ocean from which our gooey ancestors crawled and evolved into the beautiful, flawed humans that we are today. And that's why it's kind of perfect that on Earth Day, we have one of the greatest ocean activist scientists who ever lived as our guest.
A woman who must have gills by now. She has spent so much time submerged in the sea. A powerfully brilliant explorer, scientist, and environmental advocate, and someone who is oh so much wiser than me, Dr. Sylvia Earle. I'm Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and this is Wiser Than Me, the podcast where I get schooled by women who are wiser than me.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What personal climate challenges does Julia Louis-Dreyfus share?
0:27–2:51
2
What is the environmental threat from the Sable oil pipeline in Santa Barbara?
2:51–5:47
3
Who is Dr. Sylvia Earle and why is she significant?
5:47–11:16
4
How does Dr. Sylvia Earle describe her experience walking untethered on the ocean floor?
11:16
5
What can individuals do to help protect the ocean and the environment?
9:49–13:30
6
What was the experience of the all-women Tektite II underwater mission like?
13:30–16:34
7
How does Sylvia Earle balance her personal life and career as a marine explorer?
16:34
8
What practical Earth Day advice does Julia give about food waste?
9:44–51:39